BOSTON — In the tradition of the 2001-02 New England Patriots, Bruins captain Zdeno Chara wanted to publicly declare that this season’s team is a singular unit with no player above another.

So just like that Patriots team took the field prior to that Super Bowl victory as an entire team, Chara had his teammates join him for the presentation of the Prince of Wales Trophy after Boston downed Tampa Bay, 1-0, at the TD Garden in Game 7 of the Eastern Conference Final.

In sticking with a hockey tradition, however, Chara did not touch the trophy.

“It’s something that I decided not to,” he said. “I decided to have the whole team with it and to take a picture with it. It’s something we are proud of, but also we know there is a bigger fish to fry.”

Chara said he told alternate captains Mark Recchi and Patrice Bergeron during the team’s initial celebratory scrum what he had planned for the trophy pose. Then the rest of the team knew to follow.

“It’s great,” said Bergeron. “He told us before – me and Rex – he said ‘I want everybody out there.’ It shows we’re a team. It’s not one guy, it’s everyone. We’ve said that all year and that’s why we’re here.”

Role player Chris Kelly was one of those honored to be part of the presentation.

“That’s Zee for you though,” said Kelly a Chara teammate in Ottawa prior to Boston. “It’s truly a team sport. And you need everyone to contribute. I think tonight was the definition of a team game. We used everyone, everyone had a huge role and that’s important.”

People calling me last night. People calling me this morning. You’d swear I had a baby. It’s nice to hear well wishes from the ones you love. Their joy at my joy is priceless. I’m sending all that love back to everyone associated with the team.

Never prouder to be a Bruins fan than when Chara waved over the boys. I had something in my eye. This team needs everyone and they all know it. That was a moment I’ll never forget.

Some teams give the ‘C ‘ to their sexy player. Some give it to the most unselfish player that truly cares about his team.

Perfectly executed game. Perfect. What a beauty to watch, and how perfect that they accepted ‘it’ as a team. Truly they won for being ‘a team’.

Many of us were clammoring all year for others to see the benefits of the Peverley, Kelly pickups – and the reasons behind sitting Seguin. Hockey (like so many sports) is not an offensive game. You have to control the puck, eliminate mistakes and take advantage of opportunities. The Bs owned center ice – took everything away from Tampa with sound TEAM D. Awesome.

All I can say is “WOW”!! What a game!! I was on the edge of my seat the entire time. Another poster said it was like 60 minutes of O/T and he was right. I loved the fact Z brought the whole team out there for the pix……..great move. Don’t think I’ve ever seen that for any conf championship before.
And a special thanks to the ref’s for putting the whistles away. Finally nobody can complain about the poor officiating (GB) even though it looked like they’re weren’t any penalties to be called. They let the boys decide the thing amongst themselves. It was awesome to watch. Now, nothing could cap off this season better than the B’s winning this in 6 in front of the home town fans.

Like the fact that they recognize they are a team-this team doesn’t have big name scorers or really any of the elite players (unless Thomas counts)-this team has to make an all out team effort to win, because their strength is in rolling four strong lines of forwards and playing good defense.

Last night it was hard to point the finger at anyone and say they had a bad game, but there were a lot of players out there having great games even if they didn’t show up on the stat sheet. Shoot Peverly was a beast.